It is time for a new blog post and today I am going to talk all about makeup mistakes. Not just any makeup mistakes, my worst makeup mistakes. As I have said before, I have been using makeup for well over a decade. I feel like now, I have established my makeup style and I can throw my look on in minutes. However, that was not always the case. Over the years, especially in the early days, I made some big mistakes. Looking back at photos make me cringe and those closes to me like to remind me of my mistakes. So, I thought that I would be open and honest and share them with you guys. I know that I am certainly not the only one out there that is guilty of these things!
Wearing the wrong foundation shade.
This one has plagued me all of my life, but that is wearing the wrong foundation shade. For many years, when I wore exclusively MAC, I would be NC44. Truth is, now that I am wearing much more appropriate shades, I am more NC25. Even though most of the time I made it work using my lighter concealer and powders, it still didn’t look great. I think that during this phase, my biggest enemy was oxidation. I would apply my products in a morning and get them to work. It actually looked good. However, when I got in from school or work, it would look 10 shades darker. I can remember always been mortified to remove my makeup in an evening and having to look at the colour that my face had gone. That is a problem of the past!
Wearing far too much makeup.
I feel like this is something that I have only really just stepped away from. For me, I was always of the thinking, if I am wearing makeup, I may as well go for it. Truth is, I think that as I have just gotten older, I have realised that isn’t great. I used to have two layers of foundation on. So much concealer my under eyes felt thick and heavy. Not to mention that all of the powders including setting powder, blush, bronzer, contour. It just piled up on top of the skin and it was so obvious that my face was just thick with product. Now, I work in thin layers and it looks so much better. I am incredibly glad that I made this change!
Going full drag on the daily.
For this one, I blame YouTube. I watched the likes of Lauren Curtin, Jaclyn Hill, etc. I loved watching them and I bought everything with my part time job cash. I used to copy everything that they did and I loved how this full coverage ‘clubbing’ makeup looked. That, combined with the fact that there were no makeup rules at my school, I went in every single day with full drag. I am talking about glowing bases, thick foundations, full highlighting and contouring and a smokey eye. I can remember asking my mum a couple of months back why she let me leave the house looking like a teeny tiny lady of the night. Her answer was that she knew, if I didn’t apply it at home, I would apply it on the school bus.
Making my eyebrows too thick.
When I was in comprehensive school, it was the return of the brows. Cara Delavigne was on the front cover of Vogue and all over the new and immerging Instagram. We all wanted her brows, but weren’t blessed with the genetics. That drove us towards eyebrow pencils and oh my god, somebody should have told us not to bother. I would say that my eyebrows went from looking normal, to like a 80 year old man. At the time, Anastasia Brow products were just getting big. We would all draw on thick lines around 2cm wide, then colour it in using the Brow Wiz. Then, to get the “natural” look, we would use almost a whole tube of brow gel. Absolutely horrendous and I carried this trend on for far too long!
Wearing that much fake tan it just came off.
When I was in my teenage years, false tan was more accessible than ever. I think when I was around 14 years old, the cheap St Moriz fake tan was first released. It is safe to say that every girl who was in my year group at school was the same shade of awful Shrek like green. For years, I would pile that stuff on. You know the good old saying, “if you can’t tone it tan it”. Having a fresh tan just made me feel better, so I embraced it. I would add a new layer every single night. I ruined all of my clothes, bedding and even the sofa in my living room… which my mum will never let me forget about. I still wear false tan these days, but I have much more natural application methods!
Having chipped nails.
Back when I was growing up, I fancied myself as a bit of a mosher. Even though my idol was Audrey Hepburn, I still wanted the grungy edge of Hailey Williams from Paramore. In my eyes, a great way of doing this was by painting my nails back and just embracing them when they would chip. It must have looked so unsightly. One evening, my nan pulled me to one side and told me off. She said, “why do you make such an effort with your hair and makeup, but your hands look like that”. From that day, I never let them chip again and I embraced the fully manicured life!
Contour that was too deep.
I have no idea what was going around my head back then, but my contour was way too deep. I think on one occasion I even went into the MAC store to look at their sculpting powder. None of them seemed deep enough for what I wanted, so I bought the powder foundation in the darkest shade. Looking back at photos, it looks like I just had two brown stripes across my cheekbones and jawline. Honestly, it is mortifying and I wish somebody had told me frankly at the time. I think this also came down to always getting ready in incredibly poor lighting!
I hope that you guys liked this blog post. Hopefully you had a giggle at some of my worst makeup mistakes. Honestly, as horrendous as it looked at the time, it has made for some laughs. A prime example was during the days of Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse. I would cake that stuff on thick and I thought I looked amazing. I went out with a boy, I must have been around 15 and we were kissing all night. He walked me home and when my dad opened the door, he had bright orange Dream Matte Mousse all over his face. Funny days that still make me laugh. Please do leave me a comment below. Let me know your worst makeup mistakes!
